Out of total 22 accused in the case, the court acquitted eight others while trial of two accused has been separated as one of them was declared hostile after he turned approver, while another accused is absconding.
One of the 12 persons found guilty today was Faizal Ataur Rehman Sheikh who is on death row in the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train bombings case.
Special MCOCA Judge Shrikant Anekar delivered the ruling, days after conclusion of final arguments in the case, following a ten-year-long wait.
The court convicted Jundal under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosives Act, Explosive Substance Act and Indian Penal Code, while others under varying charges. Charges against them under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were, however, dropped.
The court accepted the prosecution's contention that the cache of arms and ammunitions that the ATS had intercepted from two cars had originally been procured from Pakistan.
While convicting Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) operative, Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, and 11 others, the court observed that ATS could not substantiate the charges of MCOCA against them, even as it accepted direct and substantial evidence presented by the agency in the case.
Jundal, allegedly driving the Indica, managed to give police the slip.
The court observed that the accused had a common thought process for Islam and they wanted to wage jihad.
The judge also accepted prosecution's case that the accused wanted to strike terror in the minds of the people and wanted to eliminate public figures like (the then) Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi and Hindu leader Praveen Togadia (of VHP).
He also accepted ATS' case that Jundal was driving the Indica car.
According to police, after the ATS intercepted the vehicles, Jundal, who hails from Beed district, drove to Malegaon and a few days later he escaped to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan.
He was deported to India from Saudi Arabia in 2012. Later, charges were framed against the arrested accused in August 2013.
In one of the confessions, an accused had said that
another absconding accused, who was in Bangladesh, wanted CDs of speeches of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.
Meanwhile, all convicts pleaded for lighter sentence and leniency.
The court will start hearing the arguments on quantum of punishment from tomorrow.
Jundal told the court in Marathi that he and his family members suffered a lot over last few years.
"My father had a paralytic attack and my mother had heart problem and hypertension," he said, adding that his sister was divorced because of his arrest.
Jundal told the court that he has been in a solitary confinement in Arthur Road prison here and has suffered "inequality" during incarceration.
Claiming that he was a sole breadwinner for his family, Jundal said he has been implicated in many of the cases post 2006.
He said he was undergoing medication in jail for kidney ailment.
Meanwhile, one of the acquitted persons, Firoz Deshmukh denied the charge that he was working as librarian with Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) in Mumbai.
"I never worked for IRF. I have never met or worked for Zakir Naik. I am not his follower, though I have heard about him," Deshmukh told reporters.
During the trial, the prosecution examined 100 witnesses while defence lawyers examined 16.
The court had granted bail to ten accused during the trial.
The trial was stayed by the Supreme Court for a while after one of the accused challenged constitutional validity of certain provisions of MCOCA. The stay was eventually vacated in 2009.
The Bombay High Court had also earlier directed the lower court to expedite the trial.
Other convicts, barring Jundal and two others whose trial has been separated, are identified as: Mohammed Amer Shakil Ahmed Sheikh, Mohammed Mujaffar Mohammed Tanvir, Mushtaq Ahmed Mohammed Ishak, Javed Ahmed Abdul Majeed Ansari, Afzal Khan Nabi Khan, Dr Mohammed Sharif Shabbir Ahmed Billal Ahmed Abdul Razzaq, Sayyad Akif Sayyad Zaffaruddin, Afroz Khan Shahid Khan Phatan, and Mohammed Aslam.